Q: How did you make the transition from cynical uber EQ junkie to getting a paycheck working on the hottest MMORPG around? What exactly do you do at Blizzard and what specific areas of the game do you focus on?
A: In EQ, I joined a guild called "Legacy of Steel" and eventually became an officer of that guild. Legacy of Steel was the top guild on the server I was playing on and one of the top guilds in the game, serverwide, but we didn't have a Web site. So, the guild leader at the time, Ariel, asked me to start posting Web updates, which I did. However, I soon found that just writing about the guild's most recent kills got boring, so I started branching out into other areas, including writing in-depth design suggestions.
I eventually became Legacy of Steel's guild leader because Ariel was
becoming too busy at work, and during my tenure, I led the guild to a number of server firsts as well as a few serverwide firsts, seconds, and thirds. Ariel would still log in and play occasionally, though, and we would often chat about games. Well, as it turned out, Ariel was Rob Pardo, who is now the vice president of game design at Blizzard.
Eventually, World of Warcraft was unveiled, and the position of quest
designer opened up. The job description matched my background perfectly: passion for games, experienced MMO player, Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Of couse, I applied, and after a rigorous series of interviews and tests, I was accepted on as one of the original two quest designers on World of Warcraft. As part of the design team, I quickly branched into other areas of world design, and I've worn many hats over the course of the game's development.
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